Announcement, News

Monthly Talk Session: Does Nepal Need Genetically Modified Organisms? Is Monsanto Good for Nepal?

The Public Relations Committee of Nepalese Association in Southeast America (NASeA) extends a cordial invitation to the Sunday, April 20, 2014 Monthly Talk Session over the phone with Dr. C. S. Prakash

The theme of this month’s talk session is: Does Nepal Need Genetically Modified Organisms? Is Monsanto Good for Nepal?

Date: Sunday, April 20, 2014
Time: 11 AM Eastern Time 

Venue: Conference Call
Phone: 712-432-0385
Code:139004#

Please do not miss out this important interactive session with Dr. C. S. Prakash. Following his talk, he will take questions. 
Nepal has seen a recent upsurge in the popular and social media against multinational seed companies and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and hybrid seeds.  Supreme Court of Nepal has temporarily banned imports of GMOs and hybrid seeds. Dr. Prakash will discuss the relevance of these topics and would help clarify many myths and misinformation surrounding these issues.

Dr. C. S. Prakash is a professor of plant genetics, biotechnology and genomics at Tuskegee University (USA) where he has been on faculty since 1989. He has also been actively involved in enhancing the societal awareness of food biotechnology issues around the world. Dr. Prakash also serves as Editor-in-chief of the journal GM Crops &Food.

Dr. Prakash has earlier served on the USDA’s Agricultural Biotechnology Advisory Committee under Mr. Dan Glickman (Agricultural secretary in Clinton Cabinet) and the Advisory Committee for the Department of Biotechnology for the government of India.  Dr. Prakash has been instrumental in catalyzing the scientific community in many countries to be more proactive in the biotechnology debate. He is a popular speaker who has delivered hundreds of lectures at many major universities across the globe. His commentaries, interviews and opinions have appeared in hundreds of newspapers and magazines across the globe.

Dr. Prakash’s website www.agbioworld.org was earlier an important portal disseminating information and promoting discussion in agbiotech issues among stakeholders such as scientists, policy makers, activists and journalists. His declaration in support of agricultural biotechnology was signed on by nearly 4000 scientists including 25 Nobel laureates. Through social networking sites Twitter and Facebook,  and newsletter AgBioView (which has been read by 5000 subscribers since 1999 and with over 2500 issues) along with running many online discussion groups on agbiotech in Africa and Indiahe is widely recognized as a pundit on GMO topic because of his broad focus on technical, societal and ethical issues.

Dr. Prakash was chosen by his peers as among the “100 Top Living Contributors to Biotechnology (October 2005) while the prestigious ‘Nature’ magazine readers’ short listed him for “Who’s who in biotech –  some of biotech’s most remarkable and influential personalities from the past 10 years” (March 2006).

Dr. Prakash has a bachelor’s degree in agriculture and masters in genetics from India, and obtained his Ph.D. in forestry/genetics from the Australian National University, Canberra.

Moderator:

Nar Kaji Gurung, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Animal Sciences at Tuskegee University, Alabama and Chair
Public Relationships Committee,
Nepalese Association in Southeast America (NASeA)

Phone: 334-727-8457  Email: nkgurung2002@yahoo.ca